Despite US courts ruling that Argentina must pay bondholders who own defaulted bonds (related to $100 billion default 10 years ago), the Argentinian Finance Minister has announced this won’t happen as debt payments are immnue to US laws.

BUENOS AIRES, Nov 18 (Reuters) – Argentina will not pay creditors who own defaulted bonds despite a U.S. federal appeals court ruling in favor of the holdout creditors, the economy minister was quoted as saying in an interview published on Sunday.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York last month ruled that Argentina discriminated against bondholders who refused to take part in two debt restructurings as the nation tried to recover from a $100 billion default a decade ago. The decision upheld a ruling by U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa.

The South American country appealed that ruling, and on Friday told Griesa that sovereign debt repayments made outside the United States are immune to U.S. law and seizures by holdout bondholders.

“Argentina is responsible and will fulfill all commitment it has made to its creditors. … Our creditors are all those who participated in the two restructuring proposals in 2005 and 2010,” economy minister Hernan Lorenzino told newspaper Pagina 12.

“We’re going to continue to oppose any alternative that goes beyond that. We’re going to continue presenting and defending our position to each legal entity.”

The judge is expected to give a speedy response, given that Argentina is due to start making $3.3 billion worth of payments to exchange bondholders starting Dec. 2.

Argentina and holdout bondholders that refused to join massive debt swaps in 2005 and 2010 are in a long-running battle over payment, an outgrowth of the country’s roughly $100 billion default nearly 11 years ago.

“Argentina reiterated to judge Griesa that the decision taken about pari passu (equal treatment) cannot prejudice creditors who entered the debt swaps,” Lorenzino was quoted as saying.

Last month’s ruling sparked fears that U.S. courts could ultimately inhibit debt payments to creditors who accepted terms of the restructuring, out of consideration for investors who rejected Argentina’s terms at the time.

“We’re going to continue our legal defense in all areas possible, including in the United States’ Supreme Court,” Lorenzino added.

Share this:

Like this:

Do politicians have any shame when they rob hospital funds, university and utility companies to pay bondholders just before they are going to default anyway? The perpetrators of this act clearly have no morals or the people’s interest at heart. All the monies were withdrawn after hours on March 8th.

The illegally denied default of Greece entered a dramatic new phase this afternoon with the revelation by mainstream Greek public health website Health News that, shortly before midnight on March 8th – the eve of Greece’s psi completion on Friday March 9th– on average 70% of public utility funds in varous large, interest-bearing accounts at the Bank of Greece were raided. These included most of the State’s regional hospital budgets, various universities and (it is alleged) at least one utility company.

The shortfalls came to light late last week and this morning as various hospital purchasing cheques in particular began to bounce. The monies – estimated by one source to total some 1.4 billion euros – appear to have been used to pay off the tiny minority of private sovereign creditors who, under the original terms of their bond purchase, were entitled come what may to full payment of the bond’s yield entitlement.

…..

“The Greek government used this money in order to purchase government bonds from various bondholders without getting permission from the bank account owners,” one reliable Athens source told The Slog in commenting on the story, “hospitals and universities have been robbed of hundreds of millions of Euros, absolutely essential for their core functionality.”

Want more proof that ECB runs Europe for the benefit of bankers at the cost of taxpayers 😉 Next week Ireland is to pay back debt for a bank that doesn’t exist anymore on the insistence of the ECB. The bank in question is Anglo Irish Bank which was shut down long ago. This particular bank wasn’t even important to the economy. Joe Soap didn’t bank there, just developers got loans in a massive ponzi scheme for the property market in Ireland. The debt which Irish taxpayers are being asked to pay are of course unsecured and unguaranteed bondholder debt which means it doesn’t and shouldn’t be paid back. But the ECB have other ideas. Banks before People.

Next week, the media attention will focus on another pay-off to holders of unguaranteed and unsecured bonds in the collapsed Anglo Irish Bank, who will collect 100 per cent of the due amount on their inspired investment, back in 2007, in this highly leveraged property hedge fund.

The European Central Bank continues to insist that reimbursements in full be made to those who hold bonds issued by Anglo Irish — bust many times over, closed down and under garda investigation — at the expense of an insolvent State. This will in time come to be seen as one of the strangest episodes in the history of central banking.

So is the ECB policy of ass-raping taxpayers working? 😦

The ECB has chosen to persist in regarding the insolvency of an EU member state as a minor sacrifice in the great cause of pretending that Europe does not have a banking crisis. The policy is now entirely pointless and failing to achieve its unexplained but presumed objective, continued access to the bond market for European banks.

Nobody at the ECB appears to understand that this policy is increasingly seen as an act of straightforward hostility towards this country, notwithstanding Ireland’s errors and failings in the stewardship of its banking system.

The policy does not even enjoy the justification of succeeding on its own terms, since hardly any European banks can any longer sell bonds into a market thoroughly disenchanted with the myriad failures of the European response to the crisis.

There are three eurozone member states in bailout programmes. The programme agreed for Greece in May 2010 has failed and Portugal is unlikely to exit its programme on schedule. Would the ECB like to have even one success?

To follow on this theme, below is a clip of a news conference this week when the troika came to town. A reporter Vincent Browne posed a question to Klaus Masuch of the ECB of why Ireland has to pay back Anglo’s unguaranteed bondholders? Vincent asked. To maintain the financial stability of the Irish banking system, explained Klaus. But then why pay Anglo bondholders, when Anglo is no longer a part of our banking system, and when the paying of them makes it harder for Ireland to recover and in fact makes it more difficult to honour our legitimate, sovereign debts? No explanation was forthcoming.

Masuch squirmed in his chair as Browne criticised the ECB for inflicting huge damage on society in Ireland by requiring irish people to repay back debt for the benefit of european financial institutions. Masuch sat in an embarrased silence.

Good to see someone tell the ECB what they think. Of course the Irish presstitutes completely ignored the story.